I never liked Acura “shield grill” a.k.a power plenum, it distract my eyes from the Acura logo. I would prefer Honda minimize the chrome portion and delete the upper thicker part of the grille that causes the bucktooth effect. Just do a huge logo dead center with mesh/honeycomb background surrounded by chrome lines.

Back to the RL.

To me, the RL design is just boring, period. Put this side by side to TL and it’s no competition. For a premium brand, the car’s design should be evocative if not provocative and still retains a uniqueness. The Infiniti line bulging hood/fender gives it a muscular stance while Lexus simple lines with large metal sheets made it look expensive. Acura straight edges looks good on the ZDX, MDX, RDX, and TL, basically all the originally designed Acura. The TSX is okay, but the RL is just way off, still too much Honda curves and less Acura edges.

Honda should let Acura designs the TSX and RL then rebadge it to Accord Euro and Legend, not the other way around like it is today.